BART directors approved a $589 million operating budget Thursday, setting aside $2.3 million for temporary fare rollbacks that may never happen.

For the first time in three years, the transit agency's Board of Directors passed a budget that includes no service cuts, no fare increases and no layoffs. It passed on a 6-3 vote with directors Gail Murray of Walnut Creek, Tom Radulovich of San Francisco and Tom Blalock of Fremont opposed.

The dissenters objected to board President James Fang's plan to spend about half of an unanticipated $4.5 million surplus to reduce fares by 3 percent for four months. Fang raised the rollback idea in April, shortly after BART learned that it would receive $21 million in unexpected state transit assistance. The proposal sparked criticism from some who called it a political ploy, and some directors seemed to back away from the plan.

But Fang, one of four directors up for re-election in November, persisted, saying that BART should give something back to its customers. Directors Joel Keller of Pittsburg, Carole Ward Allen of Oakland and Blalock are also up for re-election.

BART's staff had proposed a combination of other ideas, including spending $1.5 million to deep clean and refurbish the interiors of 100 rail cars and putting $2.6 million into its reserves. Fang's proposal reduces the reserves contribution to $1 million and cuts the car cleaning project to 50 cars.

Still, the fare rollback is not a certainty. As part of its efforts to satisfy federal concerns over civil rights reviews of projects and fare changes, BART is holding a series of public meetings to ask the public about the temporary fare decrease. In addition, Fang agreed to amend his proposal, at the request of Keller, to require the board to individually approve each expenditure before it's implemented.

Keller said he would gauge public reaction from the hearings and might vote against the rollback "if the public doesn't want it."

Radulovich said it's clear to him that riders would rather BART spend the money elsewhere - or not spend it at all.

"Over the last few weeks, people have been coming up to me on BART and at work saying you should save that money," he said. "The idea of putting it into reserves has support from the public. I see no support for rollbacks."

The customer-appreciation plan approved as part of the budget includes $2.3 million for fare reductions; $200,000 to delay fare increases for paratransit services for seniors and the disabled; $150,000 to improve the emergency services office; $100,000 for a program to improve customer service from station agents; $75,000 for real-time train arrival monitors at station entrances; $750,000 for the deep-cleaning program and $1 million for operating reserves.

"The spirit of the board is that we want to do something for our riders," Keller said.